Absurdity Day

Absurdism is the philosophical theory that existence in general is absurd. This implies that the world lacks meaning or a higher purpose and is not fully intelligible by reason. The term "absurd" also has a more specific sense in the context of absurdism: it refers to a conflict or a discrepancy between two things but there are several disagreements about their exact nature.

For example, "Vegetables" don't really exist. Professional chefs and home cooks may use the word "vegetable" to describe everything from asparagus and broccoli to zucchini and yams. But it turns out the term has no scientific value. When the BBC asked botanist Wolfgang Stuppy of the Royal Botanic Gardens if vegetables really exist, he answered, "No, not botanically… the term vegetable doesn't exist in botanical terminology."

But the absurdity that seems, when we encounter this problem, to characterize our lives as a whole differs in important respects from the absurdity that characterizes certain ordinary circumstances within life, and, in virtue of these differences, these two types of absurdity call for very different responses. First, obviously enough, the absurdity of life as a whole arises in virtue of strikingly incongruous features of our lives that do not just make this or that situation ridiculous, but rather render our lives as a whole ridiculous. Second, because these features of our lives are deeply entrenched, we cannot escape the absurdity to which they give rise unless we abandon life itself, or take on the onerous task of eliminating these features. In short, when we encounter the problem of the absurd, it seems that our lives as a whole are apt for ridicule, and that we cannot alter this condition, at least, not without making some grave sacrifice.